As the Job Market Improves, More Americans Are Able to Wean Off the Program

After soaring in the years since the recession, use of food stamps, one of the federal government's biggest social-welfare programs, is beginning to decline.

There were 46.2 million Americans on food stamps in May, the latest data available, down 1.6 million from a record 47.8 million in December 2012. Some 14.8% of the U.S. population is on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, down from 15.3% last August, U.S....